Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman asks banks to support COVID-affected sectors

New Delhi: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, on Friday (January 7), chaired a meeting with chiefs of public sector banks and assessed their readiness to tackle any possible disruptions due to the Omicron variant.

The Finance Ministry said during the meeting with bank CMDs/MDs, held through virtual mode, the minister also asked lenders to support sectors, besides farm, retail and MSMEs, that face interruption due to COVID.

Sitharaman also reviewed various steps taken by PSBs in implementing pandemic-related measures initiated by the government and RBI.

"During the review meeting, Smt. Sitharaman assessed various steps taken by PSBs in implementing pandemic-related measures initiated by Government of India and Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and readiness to tackle possible future disruptions that may occur due to the ongoing variant of the COVID-19 pandemic," the ministry said in a statement.

The ongoing third wave of the highly infectious Omicron variant of coronavirus has led to various domestic rating agencies lowering India's growth forecast for the current fiscal.

India Ratings and Research cut its forecast to 9.3 per cent, from 9.4 per cent earlier, while Brickwork Ratings has revised its estimates to 8.5-9 per cent from 10 per cent.
While appreciating the success of ECLGS, the Finance Minister said it is not time yet to rest on our achievements, and that our collective efforts must strive towards supporting sectors that face interruption due to the continued onslaught of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Sitharaman also conveyed to the bankers to continue supporting the agriculture sector, farmers, retail sector and MSMEs, according to the statement.

Sitharaman noted that business outlook is progressively improving despite the headwinds from global development and Omicron spread.

The Finance Minister underlined that contact intensive sectors may require more support to help them fight against the pandemic.

She also said that credit demand is expected to pick up on account of growth in retail segments, improvement in overall macroeconomic prospects and improving financial health of borrowers, as per the statement.

Under Credit Outreach Programme launched in October 2021, PSBs have sanctioned an aggregate loan amount of Rs 61,268 crore.

Of the extended limit of Rs 4.5 lakh crore of ECLGS ( launched in May 2020 to provide relief, particularly to the MSME sector amid the COVID-19 pandemic), 64.4 per cent or Rs 2.9 lakh crore, sanctioned up to November 2021.

Over 13.5 lakh small units survived pandemic due to ECLGS, saved MSME loans worth Rs 1.8 lakh crore from slipping into non-performing assets, and saved livelihood for approximately six crore families, the ministry said. Also Read: 

India on Friday reported 1,17,100 new single day COVID-19 infections and 302 fatalities. 3,007 cases of Omicron variant of coronavirus detected across 27 states, UTs so far. Also Read: